According to Steven Conway, humane educator at Montgomery County SPCA in Conshohocken, “Right now, county wide, about 23 adoptable animals fall into this category.”

The SPCA’s current “others” include mice, gerbils, guinea pigs and rabbits. “We have had birds in the past, like parakeets, parrots and finches,” Conway added, “and we have had a couple of rats.”

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Rats. Really? “There is a niche for them,” Conway said, adding that the SPCA’s “more rural” shelter in Perkiomenville (there’s also an Abington location) takes in and adopts out a considerable amount of rats and mice. “And they can be very nice animals,” he said. “I have a rat I take out to schools (for educational programs), and he’s very friendly.”

Lorraine Storms, administrative director of the Humane Society of Berks County agreed that rats are “a very specific type of pet for a very specific type of person.

“We do get people who come in, who gravitate towards them,” she said. “We work with (Karni Mata Rat Rescue) when we have large litters of rats at once. It’s not a big deal for us to have a few, but when we have 15 at once, it’s very hard to adopt them when there’s only such a specific market of people who are interested.”

It’s not uncommon for large litters of domesticated rodents to enter a shelter at the same time, according to both Conway and Storms, who said that likely happens when someone buys a set of two gerbils, or two hamsters, or two mice, and doesn’t know that one’s a male and the other’s a female.

“People inadvertently put their female and male get together …, and then they have a litter of 10 hamsters they never really wanted to begin with,” Storms said.

In other cases of owners surrendering small pets to a shelter, like a turtle or a ferret, Storms said, “It’s just the matter of care that’s involved. They’re not high maintenance like a dog or cat, but it is still maintenance. You will have to clean the cage, provide fresh water and food. A lot of times people think of (small animals) as entertaining, and then they realize the work is more than what they anticipated.”

Storms said the Humane Society, which has facilities in Reading, Douglassville and Birdsboro, is “swamped with turtles — no pun intended — and have been for probably the last year or so. I don’t know why, if it’s because people didn’t think about it as they were getting bigger that they’d need bigger tanks.”

Geckos, mice, hamsters, parakeets, rats, bunnies, a cockatiel and a “very funny” ferret are also available for adoption at the Humane Society, and in the past, the charity has found homes for snakes and iguanas, Storms said.

Conway said potential adopters will ask about lizards and bearded dragons, and animals like that do occasionally arrive at the SPCA but are soon turned over to The Schuylkill Center’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. “If we get a hawk in, we can’t adopt a hawk to the general public, so we take that to the wildlife center. Reptiles, amphibians we take there, too.

“We prefer to put them into rescue groups, because sometimes if we get an animal like a lizard or a snake, the people who adopt them may not know what they’re doing so we put them into the hands of experts.”

Storms agreed, “If we had something we couldn’t adopt, any type of rescue or sanctuary that could care for them long term is probably the better option.”

The Humane Society has had roosters in the past, and even a tarantula, a surrendered pet that was adopted several months ago, according to Storms. “That was probably the weirdest thing I’ve seen here,” she said.

“Someone came in to look at a dog and saw (the tarantula) and wanted it,” Storms explained. “There definitely are people out there who love them. It’s just a matter of getting to those people and letting them know you have that creature.”

Dogs may be the main draw, but other critters, like hamsters, have found their way home riding the tails of man’s best friend. “They may not come in specifically for these pets,” Storms said, “but they have walked out with them.”

“From a cost standpoint, it’s definitely less expensive,” Conway said of the benefits of adopting small animals versus buying them from a pet store. And gerbils, hamsters and rabbits, he added, make “good first pets for young kids.”

Each adoption, Storms said, goes to the rescue and its “mission of giving homeless animals a place to live,” helping not only the animals brought home but also those remaining at the shelter to be rehabilitated and cared for by professionals.

The same application process to adopt dogs and cats applies to small animals at both the SPCA and the Humane Society. Conway said the SPCA’s adoption fee is $5 per adoption of each small animal. Storms said the Humane Society’s fees are as follows: hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs and rats, $5; parakeets, $10; chinchillas, $25, rabbits, $30; turtles, lizards and snakes, about $10, depending on the species.